First Bite: Burmese Comes to Livermore

Shwe Myanmar Burmese Cuisine wows in the Tri-Valley.

By Nicholas Boer

Published: 2019.05.07 02:36 PM

With aromatic coconut curries coated with coarse-ground spice; slippery noodles showered with flakes of crispy garlic; and slick knobs of creamy eggplant spiked with tiny wheels of jalapeño, Shwe Myanmar’s dishes are as seductively textured as they are flavored.

As Livermore’s first Burmese restaurant—a style evocative of Thai, Indian, and Chinese cuisines—this family-run venture shows why Burmese cuisine is having a renaissance, especially in the Tri-Valley, with newcomers Burma! Burma! in Dublin and Experience Burma in Pleasanton.

Shwe’s dining room is simple yet surprisingly warm, from its golden wall art (shwe means gold) to genuine, heartfelt service. Portions are remarkably generous, particularly the sesame pork, a mountain of fried bite-size pieces laced with toasted seeds and a subtle glaze perfumed with star anise. Burma’s now-famous tea leaf and rainbow salads can be found here, but we found the Spicy Noodles Salad—packed with cilantro, dried shrimp, crisp vegetables, and shavings of house-made tofu—to be most satisfying.